Hershey Bears

Bears Advance to Calder Cup Finals

(via the Bears)

Despite a barrage of chances in the third period, Justin Peters and the Hershey Bears held on and defeated the Toronto Marlies, 3-2, to advance to the Calder Cup Finals. The regular season’s best team now bows out of the playoffs while the Atlantic Division champions will face the Lake Erie Monsters with home-ice advantage.

Peters ended the game with 21 saves on 23 shots, facing 11 shots in the third period alone. Antoine Bibeau shut the door after allowing three goals on 11 shots, finishing his second minor-league season with a 17 save performance.

In a similar way the series started, the Bears jumped out to a 3-0 lead before the Marlies offense woke up. Mid-way through the first period, Dustin Gazley streaked down the wing with Liam O’Brien opposite him. Gazley dished the puck through two defenders to O’Brien, who had his initial shot saved. The rebound popped into the air, and O’Brien bunted the puck out of the air and into the net.

To open the second, the Bears jumped all over the Marlies to open a three-goal lead. Jakub Vrana made up for missing a penalty shot attempt in the first with his primary assist on Christian Djoos‘s goal. Vrana cut from the wing to the slot while passing to Djoos, taking away Zach Hyman‘s ability to play the puck cleanly. Djoos cut outside, then back inside for a wrister over Bibeau’s shoulder. 69 seconds into the second, the Bears led 2-0.

64 seconds later, Riley Barber — inserted into the lineup for Sean Collins (healthy scratch) — went for a cross-ice pass to find Nathan Walker. The man from Down Under fired the puck from one knee past a lunging Bibeau. Walker’s goal stood up as the game-winner after a furious Marlies comeback.

Former Bear Connor Carrick tried his luck on Peters with a slap shot from center point six minutes later. Luckily for him, William Nylander stood in the way and tipped the puck in for his seventh of the playoffs. Despite four shots on goal all period, the Marlies came away from the second needing two more to tie the game.

For most of the third period, Peters seemed a little off in the crease. He came out too far to challenge the puck handler only to be duped with a cross-ice pass. Aaron Ness made a sliding kick save of his own early in the third, but puck luck eventually ran out on the Chocolate and White.

Zach Hyman floated a puck on net five minutes into the third and it bounced off Peters’ pads up into the air. He came out to stick the puck away, missed, then tried to fall on the puck. Hyman got there first and slid the puck across for Nikita Soshnikov to score his fifth of the playoffs.

The Bears went without a shot on goal for nearly nine minutes before Ryan Bourque broke through, but not after nine straight attempts at the net from Toronto. The second Toronto goal appeared to settle Peters back into the game, as he stopped all that came his way afterward.

With Bibeau pulled for the extra attacker over the last 80 seconds, the Bears remained hemmed in their zone. Peters made three solid stops while his defense blocked a few more. When the horn sounded, the Chocolate mob came to his crease while the coaches shared a group hug on the bench.

For the first time since 2010, the Hershey Bears are in the Calder Cup Finals. They will open the series at GIANT Center on Wednesday night.

See also:

Bears and Caps Alum Connor Carrick Grateful After Loss

Max Wolpoff

Churchill High School graduate (2015) and current Boston University journalism student. Follow me on Twitter (@Max_Wolpoff) for game-day tweets or my random musings about being a college student.

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